Bayreuth for Queers

The city of Bayreuth is welcoming and open-minded, and thanks to the Richard Wagner Festival, it has long since been a meeting place for the LGBTQ community.

The LGBTQ commu­nity is very welcome in Bayreuth!

Not just since LGBTQ has been on everyone’s lips in connec­tion with the fight for sexual equa­lity and against discri­mi­na­tion, but for close to 150 years now, Bayreuth has been reco­g­nised as a popular desti­na­tion for people of diffe­rent sexual orien­ta­tions from all over the world, espe­ci­ally in connec­tion with Richard Wagner’s work and the Bayreuth Festival.

Bayreuth is not Barce­lona or Tel Aviv — but tole­rance towards people who do not conform to the once common hete­ro­se­xual stereo­type has a long tradi­tion here. Without going into detail on Alex­ander von Humboldt, who was after all a resi­dent of Bayreuth for four years, many artists and musi­cians estab­lished Bayreuth’s repu­ta­tion as a tole­rant city towards the end of the 19th century, and direc­tors such as Patrice Chereau in the 1970s or Barry Kosky continue to do so in our own time.

Even today, Bayreuth is a meeting place for the LGBTQ commu­nity. Unique sights, palaces and parks such as the Hermi­tage, Fantaisie and Sans­pa­reil, or the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival in the UNESCO World Cultural Heri­tage Site, the Margra­vial Opera House with world stars of baroque music every September, are wonderful reasons to get to know Bayreuth better. Bayreuth’s hotel industry and excel­lent gastro­nomy will treat the LGBTQ commu­nity to the best of comfort, excel­lent cuisine, Fran­co­nian beer variety and Fran­co­nian wines. 

In keeping with this, an assort­ment of diffe­rent rainbow souve­nirs such as mugs, pins or lanyards is available in the Bayreuth Shop located at 22 Opernstraße.

Our 2nd Mayor, Andreas Zippel, also extends a warm welcome to the LGBTQ community: 

We look forward to welco­ming you at our events and wish you a great time in the city.